The ads appeared at the mall and on its website, and similar ones ran on radio. Print ads were also published recently, including one as early as last Friday in The Chronicle Herald.

Locals took the digital images and started circulating and mocking them online, especially on Twitter, and some news outlets noticed the backlash. The American website BuzzFeed said the response “has been 100% negative” and quoted critics saying the images were sexist and humiliating.

On Thursday, the mall issued a statement saying it would remove all the ads and was “sincerely sorry for offending its customers.”

To regain trust and show how much the mall cares about girls’ education, staff will pick an organization to receive the $5,000 donation, said the release.

The recipient will be announced next week. But before that, keeping in line with the conversation already happening, mall staff will listen to ideas for where the money should go, said spokeswoman Rebecca Logan.

“We’ll be reaching out to our fan base online and our customers and asking people to submit any ideas or organizations that they would like to see receive additional funding,” she told The Chronicle Herald.

People can submit ideas to the Mic Mac Mall website and its Facebook page, or they can visit guest services at the mall, said Logan.

“We’re proud of our customer base at Mic Mac Mall,” said the release. “HRM has the highest concentration of post-secondary institutions in Canada.”

As far as an apology goes, the sum is meaningful, said a representative of one local organization involved in girls’ education.

“Five thousand dollars goes a long way to a program like that,” said Ben Parker, director of SuperNOVA, a nonprofit run out of Dalhousie University.

Among other programs, the organization offers year-round sessions for girls interested in science, technology and industry.

The ads, Parker said, “are ridiculous.”

Each year, SuperNOVA sees about 50 girls between the ages of nine and 14.

Parker said he has often heard them talk about how they feel comfortable expressing an interest in science in an all-girls setting but not in school or on their free time because it’s not considered “cool” for girls.

“Those ads are a huge slap in the face to those girls because they’re making fun of girls who are interested in that sort of thing,” he said.

“I guess, $5,000, that’s great. The damage is still done (but) that’s a large amount of money that would be a huge help to a program like ours, so I guess it’s a step in the right direction.”